Page 54: of Marine Technology Magazine (January 2015)

Case Study

Modern Tech for a Cold Case

By Rhonda Moniz, Sales Engineer, Seabotix n January 1971, a phone rang in the living room of a fam- blizzard shortly after takeoff. The elder Nikita was the pilot of ily in Atlanta, Ga. Lem Nikita, then 19, answered the call a 10-seat Jet Commander owned by Cousins Properties, Inc. which con? rmed that his father George Nikita’s plane It was enroute from Burlington, VT, to Providence, RI, to pick

Ihad crashed somewhere over Lake Champlain during a up one of the pilots wives before continuing on to Atlanta.

George Nikita’s (above left) plane with four passengers crashed in a blizzard over Lake Cham- plain in 1971. It took 43 years and a collaboration of modern technology to help solve the mys- tery. (Top right) The morning brie? ng; (Bottom right) the Seabotix ROV in action.

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